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THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE MANJOWS.
(Continued from vol. vii, page 329.)

CHAPTER IV. CONQUEST OF LIAOSI CONTINUED.

No. 1

FROM its geographical position, the extent of its country, and the numbers and character of its various peoples, Mongolia would of necessity very materially affect the interests of the Manjows, who could not afford to permit the Mongols to remain foes, and must have contemplated with misgiving the task of compelling them to become allies; for the Mongols were immensely more numerous than, and as fond of the saddle and the bow as the Manjows.

The name Munggoo, from which we receive the term Mongolia, is a comparatively modern one, the "wandering kingdom" being known by many and changing names in Chinese history. The Mongols were however always even nominally free,—or as the Chinese historians modestly phrase it, in a state of rebellion-till the Tang dynasty conquered the Doo-jüe, situated south and south-west of Gobi. Two cities were then built in this desert of the sandy sea,this Han-hai,-which was specially created by Heaven, to divide the "Middle Flowery Kingdom" from the rest of the world,(!)—the cities being intended to command the conquered district.

The subject Mongols were not long in asserting their freedom, which they retained till the Nüjun predecessors of the Manjows—the Liao and Jin (Kin) dynasties-established several earthen walled cities in the south-east of Mongolia, ruling over the peoples then called the Doong-si and the Si-si, but they did not attach the regions north of the river. In order to have control over the communications between their newly-acquired territory and their original home in northern Manchuria, it was necessary for them to establish and occupy these military posts. The Liao dynasty was overturned by its cousin *, possibly the "Liw" as the Liao is called in the west, but more probably the

Yellow river.

the Jin, which in its turn fell before the Mongols, at a time when they were the most powerful people in Asia.

These Mongols,-who gave China the Yooen dynasty,-came from the northern reaches of Mongolia, between the Great desert and Russia. They asserted their supremacy, first over their neighbours south of Gobi, then westwards to Datoong, conquering all south and west Mongolia up to the Mohammedan countries of the Si-yih. The whole of Mongolia was then first united to China, but as her conqueror not her vassal; the accumulated Mongol forces driving out the Jin from the north, and subduing the Soong dynasty in the south of China. The Yooen dynasty retained the old subdivisions in Mongolia, establishing "wangs" and imperial sons-in-law over the various tribes, the descendants of whom, and of members of the Yooen family, being princes in Mongolia to this day.

The Ming (native Chinese) dynasty, which overturned the Yooen, pursued them northwards beyond the desert to their old homes, and always maintained a nominal sovereignty over the whole of Mongolia, though they found it easier to do so by subsidies than by the sword; nor did yearly "presents" prevent the Mongols from making many and formidable incursions into Chinese territory.

Mongolia is usually divided into four, the Inner Mongols south of the desert, the Outer north of the desert, Nwolootei west of the desert, and the "Chinghai" or Kokonor Mongols.

At the present stage of our history we have to deal only with the Inner Mongols, divided into forty-eight banners, twenty-four families, and six tribes, in addition to other two banners and one family occupying the cities of Gweiwha and Toomootei, north of Peking.

*

Four of those tribes border the west of the whole of Manchuria,† from the province of Hei-loong jiang‡ on the north to Shanhai gwan on the south, and extend along the north of Chihli, while the remaining two border Shansi, Shensi and Kansuh.

The nearest Mongol neighbours of the Manjows were the Kursin, which is one of the largest of the families. It, with Gworlwosu, Doorbatei, and Jalaitei, formed the tribe Jualimoo. But Kursin gives its name to the tribe more frequently than not.

From very remote periods, the sword decided the right of the

* Dividing the Mongols into clans and tribes, it is difficult to distinguish the one from the other, and the word "horde" is inappropriate when applied to a well-established order. I have therefore preferred to call boo, the smaller, a "family," and ming, a "tribe," being composed of so many boo, just like the

tribes of Israel.

Shing-jing or Fung-tien, by which names alone it is known to the Chinese; Manchuria being a name improperly given by foreigners.

Hei-loong jiang, not Taitsihar, or Jijihar, which is its capital.

particular family which was to be head of the tribe; and the head of a family frequently made himself chief of his tribe, but extended his sway over neighbouring families and clans. It was by means of this perpetual internal discord, that Mongolia fell piecemeal at the feet of the Manjows, who got the "division" ready made and had only to "reign." But it was also by means of this same incessant internal struggle, that the Mongols made the conquests which agitated the whole world; for they themselves had to be conquered before they marched a foot beyond Mongolia, and their only cohesive power was a master mind; which if removed, caused the breaking up of the compact mass into its original elements, and which may again make the name of Mongol as terrible as ever was that of Hun given to their ancestors

Kursin* beyond Sifung kow is from east to west eight hundred and seventy li, and from north to south two thousand one hundred li, stretching from Shanhai gwan to Swolwun, the birthplace of the Liao dynasty in the far north, on the Siwngwha jiang or Songari, and is still under the rule of the lineal descendant of Hasar, a younger brother of the founder of the Yooen dynasty. In the early days of the Ming dynasty, Woolianghua,† chief of Kursin, was made the principal of the three Mongol chiefs nominated by the Ming, to watch the frontier. This supremacy was afterwards destroyed, and the four families of Jualimoo,-all called Kursin after the principal one,-subjected by force of arms to the head of the Chahar family. From its position, Kursin was the first Mongol family or tribe to come in contact with the Manjows.

From the rough map accompanying the first chapter of this history it will have been observed, that Chinese territory extended northwards beyond Moukden like a wedge, till it terminated in a point just outside Kaiyooen, on the east of which city was that portion of the Nüjun from whom sprang the Jin dynasty, and on the west the family of Kursin, whose head was chief of the tribe.

If the Eastern Mongols and Nüjun or Manjows are not physiological or philological brothers, they are very near relations,—their polysyllabic languages containing so many similar words; and the many customs they have in common, seem as distinctly to point to a common origin, as to their mutually wide separation from the Chinese.

As the old Mongol chiefs loved war and plunder, like our own old barons, tribe against tribe and family against family, so did the Eastern Mongols often measure swords with their neighbours the Nüjun; for

Afterwards called Kortsin, but as far as I can learn without good reason; for the Mongols call their country west of Manchuria, Toornaor, and themselves Harchin; the latter probably the origin of the Chinese, which in that case would be more properly written Karsin.

tLWoo-liang-hua.

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